The present invention generally relates to toner recovery systems, and more particularly to a toner recovery system for an image forming apparatus.
Conventionally, various toner recovery systems have been proposed for an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine. For example, there is a toner recovery system which is provided with a means for detecting a full state of a recovered toner tank by detecting a lowered position of the recovered toner tank due to the weight of the recovered toner. On the other hand, there is a toner recovery system which is provided with a detection means for detecting the full state of the recovered toner tank in response to a pushing force of a toner recovering member which is pushed by the toner which cannot be transported to the recovered toner tank due to the full state of the recovered toner tank. The "recovered toner" refers to the residual toner which remains on a photosensitive drum or the like after a toner image on the photosensitive drum is transferred onto a recording sheet and is recovered when the photosensitive drum is cleaned by known means.
According to the toner recovery systems described above, the image forming apparatus suddenly stops the image forming operation such as a copying operation without any advance notice when the recovered toner tank becomes full. In addition, when extracting the recovered toner tank from the image forming apparatus, there was a problem in that the toner within the recovered toner tank easily overflows from the recovered toner tank and contaminates the inside of the image forming apparatus.